It’s Safe to Help –
April 21, 2019 – Such myths could put overdose victims at risk, since emergency responders may be hesitant to touch or treat them. In recent months, several police reports and media outlets have recounted stories of law enforcement officers getting high or sick after responding to overdose victims and getting fentanyl powder on their hands. “’If we’re believing in the myths, it creates a level of fear, so people are less likely to come into contact with someone who might be experiencing an opioid overdose,” said Melody Quinn, the opioid prevention initiative detective at the St. Louis County Police Department. She spoke to law enforcement professionals earlier this week at the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Olivette. Unlike heroin, fentanyl is a man-made opioid. It’s cheap to make and incredibly potent, which means it’s highly profitable for manufacturers and easy to smuggle into the country from manufacturing centers in China and other countries. A drug user who buys opioids on the street will usually not be able to know how much of fentanyl the drugs contain. That puts people at a much higher risk of an overdose. Health officials have blamed the opioid for the skyrocketing rate of overdose deaths.
